Exactly one year after opening, popular Phibsborough eatery ‘Two Boys Brew’ was forced to close for two months. With doors reopening this week, we caught up with co-owner Taurean to get the full story, and find out what we can expect from the revitalised cafe.
What happened that led to the closing?
Unfortunately, we came across some pipework that was leaking below the surface, which resulted in us having to uncover parts of the floor throughout the cafe.
Was there much damage?
There was damage below the surface that needed immediate repair. This involved opening up several areas of the cafe, both in the main space and kitchen. The most time consuming part was ensuring all was back as it should be.
What did you do with your spare time?
There wasn’t much spare time unfortunately! Both of us were on site every day working with the team, looking after the building works or working on the business side of things, so there was still lots to focus on to keep things going. With little or no building work going on at the weekend, this did give us a bit of time to explore new spots around the city which we hadn’t had a chance to and we did pop over to Sligo to visit our friends at Shell’s, Sweet Beat & Pudding Row which was great! We really relished those rare days off.
What is the positive side of all of this?
We’re both really positive guys, so while all of this was going on and despite the numerous hurdles along the way – we kept our heads up and kept a positive attitude towards it all. Unfortunately, you come across things like this along the way that are completely out of your control, so for us two it was important not to dwell too much on the negatives or the hardship but rather work together to get the cafe back to what it was. It was a great opportunity to really focus on our food and coffee offering and make some very exciting plans for the near future.
What can we expect from the new cafe?
From a design POV not much has changed. We celebrated our first birthday just before we closed in July and the place still looked like it did on day one, which we are very proud of! We really love our space and work hard to keep it looking great.
Being closed for this many weeks now, we’ve had so many people reach out and say how much the place means to them and how much they enjoy spending their time there – that is so uplifting and such a huge part of what keeps us focused and driven to get the doors re-opened.
Any recent changes on the food / coffee side of things?
When you’re working in the business each and every day its hard to take a step back and look at things from a different perspective. With everything going on, we had the chance to sit down with the entire team and chat through what we had done over the last year and focus on areas that we could develop and grow.
One area in particular that we we’re all very excited about is our coffee offering. We just announced last week that we will be working with Root & Branch Coffee Roasters exclusively as our house roaster for the next chapter of Two Boys Brew and we’re really looking forward to sharing some of their exceptional coffees with everyone.
Our menu has always evolved, whether that be due to seasonality or availability of certain ingredients – but it’s always been inherently connected to what Two Boys Brew is about and that is food that’s delicious and celebrates great produce. With Autumn in full swing -we’re really excited to be introducing some new dishes to the menu over the next few weeks.
Is there anybody who was particularly helpful or supportive over the last few weeks?
We’ve been blown away to be honest by the support & generosity of everyone. From our customers sending endless messages of encouragement, to receiving messages of support from other cafe & business owners throughout Ireland and abroad – it’s been amazing. We’ve had so many people reach out to us over the last few weeks and its really driven home the importance of community – both within the local area but also amongst the coffee/cafe community too.
Anything else you would like Dublin Cafe enthusiasts to know?
We’re more enthusiastic & excited than ever about getting those doors open again and we can’t even begin to describe how much we’re looking forward to seeing everyone very soon!
Read more about Two Boys Brew here.
